MARK LOOKING FOR BACK TO BACK WINS

Mark McGhee is hoping his side can put back to back wins together for the first time this season, when they visit Rochdale on Saturday.

With a number of key players close to a return, the manager believes that two wins would be a great platform to introduce them back into the squad.

He said: “They have been good this week and they do have the positive influence of the win last week, and hopefully the ambition to go and get two in a row, which we have not managed yet.

“Back to back victories would be fantastic, because next week we will have Matt Gill, Cian Bolger and Danny Woodards becoming available and we can start to rev it up then.

“If we could put back to back victories together it would be a fantastic platform to bring these back, and the competition that would come into the squad would be great going into December.

“Availability of players will make it consistent, you need your best players to be consistent, and we are getting some of those back now.

“Saturday is a difficult game, but I feel we have enough in the squad, and the team that will start to go and do well.

And the manager says he takes each game as it comes, and prepares the best he can, whether it be a home or away fixture.

“I think we have to take each game at a time, home or away. This game is away, and we will be preparing for it properly.

“We are travelling up on the Friday and we are going to have a sit down on Friday night and have a look at some of the video evidence of the good and the bad, and then go out on Saturday and be as prepared as we can to win against a decent Rochdale team.

“I saw them the other night, they would have been disappointed to go out of the cup, and disappointed with the way they played, but they have two or three players to come back into the side which will strength and freshen them, so we have to be prepared for a difficult day.”

And the manager believes Danny Woodards needs to play some football before coming back into the first team, for his own piece of mind.

Mark said: “Danny has to convince himself that when he is faced with a block tackle or a serious challenge that he is able to execute it.

“I think he will have to go through a few of them in a game away from the first team before he can know for sure. His level of fitness is fantastic, and he is not far away.

“We have been unable to fix a game as there has been a first team game and a youth team game, so we have been short of bodies.

“But Danny has continued to train, get fitter and be involved more, so he has learnt more about his recovery on the training ground.

“Danny was our player of the year last year, and he will get back in the team. Matt Lund has done outstandingly well as well and is likely to keep his place, so other people will need to look over their shoulder.

"I think we are pretty much as we are, apart from Matt Lund who is suspended. Matt has moved into a more defensive role, as such he is going to get some bookings, especially as he was playing out of position at first and could have been uncertain. I think he has been outstanding, so we will forgive him that.

“As I understand it Cian is going to be joining us on Monday and start training with us again.”